Practice Husband

Bill held up his hand in a gesture of surrender. “Sorry. I won’t make one move until after you’ve finished the negotiations. What about your phone call?”

“Dammit! I left him hanging when she bolted.” Joe hurried over to the phone. Addy was still the most aggravating woman he’d ever met.

“Barrington here,” he said.

“Good morning, Mr. Barrington. This is Sean Hodkins. You asked me to let you know when the bank reached a decision on the loan David Edwards applied for?”

You mean I bribed you to let me know, Joe thought cynically. “I take it you have news?”

“Yes, the bank turned him down. The loan committee felt that his company was already badly overextended, and that young Mr. Edwards didn’t have a viable plan for turning his family’s company around.”

Joe bit down on the sense of exultation that filled him. At long last, after years of waiting and planning, he was finally going to be able to exact revenge on the Edwards family for what they had done.

“You did as I asked?” Joe kept his voice level with an effort.

“Yes, sir. Exactly as you said. When Mr. Edwards came out, I offered him your business card and told him that your company was looking to invest excess profits and preferred to do it locally. I suggested he contact you.”

“What did he say?”

“He said he was glad someone was able to make a profit in business because he sure didn’t seem to have the knack.”

“Did he take the card?” Joe demanded.

“Yes, although he didn’t look at it. He just stuffed it into his pocket. Poor man, I’m afraid the committee’s rejection was a real blow to him.”

If so, it was one of the few blows that had ever landed in David Edwards’s charmed life, Joe thought grimly. But that was about to change. He was about to experience how the rest of the world lived.

“Wait until tomorrow and then give him a call and remind him of what you said,” Joe ordered. “By then he should be more receptive to the idea.”

“Oh, I will,” Hodkins said earnestly. “It would be a shame if the Edwards Corporation were to fold. Why, that plant’s been here since my great-grandfather’s time. And young Mr. Edwards seems like such a nice man.”

“Give me a call if you hear anything else.” Joe cut him off. He didn’t want to hear David Edwards’s praises sung. He knew better.

Joe hung up the phone and leaned back in his chair as a sense of satisfaction filled him. It had taken him his entire life to reach this point, but he was finally here. Within months, sooner if he were lucky, the Edwards Corporation would belong to him. His mouth tightened. As it should have all along.

And with Addy’s land... An unconscious smile curved his lips as he thought of her. Who would have ever thought that she would turn out as she had? Once in a while over the years he’d caught sight of a redhead in a crowd and he’d thought of her, wondering where she was and what she was doing. But never in his wildest flights of imagination had he ever thought that she’d look so infinitely alluring.

What would it be like to take her in his arms? he wondered. To kiss the soft lusciousness of her full mouth. To nuzzle her neck and to cup the weight of her breast in his hand. To...

No! With a monumental effort, he clamped down on the erotic images his mind insisted on playing. Addy was strictly out of bounds, he told himself. Anyone who had spent the last four years of her life helping out a group of nuns was not the type of woman who would be interested in an affair.

Addy was the type who would expect a declaration of undying love, followed by a marriage proposal. Something he had no intention of offering, because no matter how wild the sex was in the beginning, it invariably cooled, leaving a man trapped in a stale, boring relationship.

Far better to keep Addy as a friend. And she was his friend. The thought brought a feeling of pleasure in its wake. They might not have seen each other in years, but they shared a history that went back to grade school. Not only was she his friend, but he trusted her. In fact, she was one of the few people in the world that he did trust.

No, he repeated, Addy was his friend and sex would screw that up. Sex was easy to come by if that was all a man wanted. Friends were a lot more precious. He reached for the pile of papers he’d been working on with a feeling of anticipation that hadn’t been there before Addy’s reentry into his life.

“Addy?” A short woman in her early thirties peered out through her screen door. “Is that really you?”

Addy chuckled at Kathy’s incredulous tone. “Yes, so open the door and let me in.”

Kathy hurriedly shoved open the screen. “Sorry, I was kind of... How on earth did you lose all that weight?” she blurted out.

“It just kind of happened,” Addy said, as disconcerted by the sight of Kathy as her friend apparently was by her. Kathy had always been impeccably turned out in an appropriate outfit, whatever the occasion. Yet now she was wearing a pair of jeans that were frayed around the legs and a sweatshirt that looked as if it had been caught in the middle of a food fight.

Curious, Addy followed Kathy through the littered hallway into a bright, sunny kitchen. The source of the food splotches on Kathy’s clothes was immediately apparent. A toddler was sitting in a high chair, happily smearing what looked like applesauce into his brown hair.

Addy chuckled at his beatific expression. “That, I take it, is Jimmy?”

“The one and only, and don’t encourage him. His father already spoils him rotten. Have a seat.” Kathy shoved a pile of dirty laundry off a chair onto the floor.

Addy sat down.

“When did you get back?” Kathy demanded.

“Last night. Hi, Jimmy.” Addy smiled at the little boy. To her delight, he smiled back and tossed her a spoonful of applesauce. Fortunately, his aim wasn’t very good and it hit the table instead.

“You always did have a way with kids,” Kathy said. “Remember when our mothers would volunteer us to baby-sit in the church nursery? You could always get the screamers to shut up. Want some coffee?”

“No, I want some information.”

Kathy ducked as Jimmy again flung applesauce in her direction. “How about motherhood isn’t all it’s cracked up to be?”

Addy laughed. “Few things are.”

“Marriage is.” Kathy’s face took on a dreamy cast. “Jim is a fantastic husband. Now that you’re home, we’ve got to find you one.”

“I’m willing to consider any and all offers.”

Kathy blinked. “What?”

“I said that I would like to get married, and I’m willing to consider all options.”

Kathy stared at Addy in suspicion. “Are you making fun of my match-making tendencies?”

“No, I’m hoping to use them. I’d like to have some kids of my own.”

Kathy glanced around the disheveled kitchen and shuddered. “On your head be it. How can I help?”

“Do you know any eligible bachelors?”

Kathy pursed her lips thoughtfully. “Let’s see. There’s Bart Dandridge, but I think we’d best stay away from him.”

“Why?” Addy asked curiously.

“One of the partners in Jim’s law firm handled his divorce and, according to him, Bart’s wife claimed he beat her up a couple of times. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but...”

“I’ll pass on Bart,” Addy agreed.